Improvement in safes



W9. SAEES, BANK PROTECTION RELATED DEVTCES.

UNTTED STATES PATENT EETCE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SAFES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 52,484, dated February6, 1866; antedated December 9, 1865.

To all whom it may concern.

Beit known that I, LINUS YALE, Jr., of Shelbur-ne Falls, county ofFranklin, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements inBurglar-Proof Safes; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull and correct description thereof', reference being had to theannexed drawings, and to the letters of reference thereon.

My said invention relates to the hard castiron or other hard-metallining or filling used in burglar-proof safes.

lt has heretofore been the practice to apply this material in the formof flat plates, and to rivet these plates to the wrought-iron innerportion of the walls ot' the safe, and then to put on the outer cover ofWrought-iron plates by riveting. This mode ot' construction is notburglar-proof, although a great protection against burglars by reasonot' the hardness of the hard cast-iron resisting the action ofcutting-instruments, such as chisels, drills, Snc. Such safes may beopened by whatis called the peeling77 or stripping process. The outsidewrought-iron plates are first peeled or stripped oft' by driving achisel or other wedgeshaped tool between the wrought-iron plates and thecast-iron lining at the corners or edges of the safe, the position ofthe joints permitting this operation to be readily performed, the jointsbein gat right angles to the rivets, so that every blow on the wedge orchisel tends to force the Wrought-iron plate away from the cast-ironlining and to break or cut ott the rivets as the chisel is driven inbetween the plates. The outer covering of wrought-iron being thus peeledoft leaves the hard cast-iron lining exposed to the burglar, who thenproceeds to strip or peel it off from the inner wrought-iron box towhich it is riveted in the same manner as one would go to work to open acommon packing-box or to separate two dat boards that have been nailedtogether-that is, he drives a wedge or chisel into the joint at thecorners, and the wedge or chisel will go in because the wrought-ironforms one side ot' the joint, and as the chisel goes in it cuts ott' orbreaks ott' the rivets and forces the hard cast-iron armor from thewrought-iron inner box or safe, thus stripping the safe of itsburglar-prooi` armor almost as readily with proper tools as one wouldopen a box.

My invention consists in part in an improved form ot' the hard cast-ironlining, whereby I have remedied this great defect in burglarproof safes.Instead ot using iiat plates of hard cast-iron jointed at the cornersand edges, I' cast the hard iron intended for safelinings in angularplates of a peculiar formthat is to say, I cover the wrought-iron innerbox with hard cast-iron plates that have no joints at the corners,nojoints at right angles to the rivets, and no exterior joints ofwrought and cast iron plates, the joints being all between the hardcast-iron pla-tes and all parallel with the rivets. Therefore should aburglar strip the outer cover of wrought-iron from my improved safe itwould be next to impossible for him to get a prying-tool in between thejoints of the hard cast-iron lining, and harder still to force it by thetool from the wrought-iron inner box, the joints being so disposed thatthe opcrationot stripping would be practically the same as that ot'attempting to raise, by a crowbar, thick slabs of iron laid on a tloorclosely jointed together and riveted to the ioor it one has to begin inthe middle of the door or at any place where the crowbar cannot beinserted between the Jdoor and the iron plates.

The difficulty ot' raising tiles or flags from their place in apave1nent,where they are only bedded in sand, is a familiar instance ot'the eect of the mode of jointing I have embodied in my improved hardcast-iron linings for burglar-proof safes.

In carrying out my invention .l construct the hard-metal plates I use bycasting them in whatl call corner-pieces and edge or tillin g pieces.77The corner-pieces are castin the shape of three sides ot a hollow cube,the sides being, say, abontone-third the width of the sides of thewrought-iron box or safe to which they are to be applied. One of thesecorner-pieces is riveted on to each corner ot' the inner safebox, andbetween the corner-pieces are riveted the edge or illin g pieces, whichare fplates of hard cast-iron ot' the form of two sides of a hollowcube, and oi' snflicient width to till up the space between thecorner-pieces. lt' the edge or filling pieces be made of one size therewill remain a square in the middle of each side ofthe safe, which may belled by a fiat plate of the hard cast-iron; but by casting halt' of thelling-pieces enough longer than the others to ll up thisv middle spacethe centerplate need not be used.

In the manufacture of safes I prefer to cast my corner-pieces withWrought-iron tie-rods or net-work embeddedin them, as described in mypatent of October 19, 1862. I also make the oorner-pieces of one givensize for several dit"- ferent sizes of safes, and vary the size of thefilling pieces to suit the difference of size; but this is a matter ofconvenience in the manufacture. But more particularly to describe myinvention I Will refer to the drawings, of which- Figure l is aperspective view, showing the mode of applying` the hard corner-piecesand edge or filling pieces to the inner wroughtiron box. Letter a. isthe Wrought-iron inner box 5 b, the corner-pieces,fastened to the innerWrought-iron box by means of the rivets c and rivet-holes a. Fig. 2 is adetached view of a corner-piece, b. Fig 3, detached view of edge ortilling piece e.

Thetie-rods d and rivets@ are shown in allthe figures and in section atFig. 4, which latter figure represents two Ways of crooking therivet-rods-onethemode of hooking to embrace the tie-rods, and the othera simple crook to make the same Wire or rod answer for rivets for bothsides.

Although I prefer, for economical reasons, to make myimproved armor ofhard cast-iron, I do not Wish to be understood as confining myself tothat material, as it is evident that case-hardened wrought-iron, steel,and other hard metals can be used. Neither does my invention consist infastening by rivets cast in, as ordinary rivets, bolts, or any knownform of fastening may be used. If the corner-pieces are made largeenough, the edge or filling pieces may be omitted; but it is moreconvenient to use them in the practical manufacture of safes.

I claim as my invent-ion and improvement in burglar-proof safes- Theangular plates or sections of hard metal, consisting of corner-pieces,or cornerpieces and edge or filling pieces, when constructed, arranged,and applied tothe exterior of the inner Wrought-iron portion ofthe Wallsvof a safe substantially in the manner and for the purposes hcreinbeforedescribed.

LINUS YALE, JR. Witnesses:

F. C. TREADWELL, J u., O. A. DURGIN.

